Voice recording for the English localization of Tales of Xilla has been completed, Namco Bandai has announced.

“Eight hours of voice recording across an eight week span, filled with late nights catching up on emails, proofing, and preparation for the following day. “It’s a grueling process that’s both physically and mentally taxing,” said North American producer Ted Tsung on the PlayStation Blog.

“Despite this, it was a fantastic experience, thanks to the support from Cup of Tea, 8-4, and the voice actors. I might be looking through rose-tinted glasses, but you won’t find a better group of people.”

According to Tsung, “people will be satisfied” with the voices Namco Bandai has chosen for each character.

Each character’s voice matches the “original intention” of their persona. Milla, for example, was given a “deeper” voice, as she is a powerful and authoritative character. Jude, on the other hand, was “pitched down” a “little bit.” While he still maintains his adolescent qualities as seen in the Japanese version, Namco Bandai “figured the North American audience would prefer a lower, stronger voice.”

Wow!! It’s a great new!!! It’s mean that the localization work is near to finished, no? Well, I guess there will still be plenty to do yet, but I’m still excited! :) I have a feeling that the release date will not take long to be revealed. Fingers crossed!

AdamBoy64

Great news.
Still seems a bit… surreal almost, to be getting another Tales game so soon.

LordKaiser

I don’t know how it will work out. But deeper voices worries me unless she sounds like Ghost in the Shell protagonist or Apple Seed protagonist.

I wonder too. Ever since they said Xillia was coming to the West they put out more screenshots and pushed it more than they did for Graces f. It seems like it’d be better to release pretty soon as opposed to later. Even in January it’d have to compete with Ni No Kuni. Late December seems, to me anyway, like it woulda been a good date.

Revorse

I wonder too. Ever since they said Xillia was coming to the West they put out more screenshots and pushed it more than they did for Graces f. It seems like it’d be better to release pretty soon as opposed to later. Even in January it’d have to compete with Ni No Kuni. Late December seems, to me anyway, like it woulda been a good date.

fireemblembeast

As much as I’d love for it to be that early, I don’t think so. Also, I hope it wouldn’t , because I have like 20 games I need to finish, including Graces f. I got BBCSE in February and I barely did anything with it because I still need to finish BBCT. -_-|||

Tough to say, I think you would have to be directly involved with the project to know more.

I’m sure they have various steps to follow, they probably haven’t finished localizing everything just yet, but it sounds like they are close. I’d guess the next step would be quality checking everything.

Last but not least, it’s up to Namco-Bandai to decide what date they feel is best suited for the game to release on. I’m sure they have an entire (separate) team that makes these decisions, which also involves possible DLC and junk like pre-order bonuses etc.

The publisher contacts retailers and they work out deals. Typically, retailers look for something extra, like special day one DLC for example, so they can (hopefully) get more customers to buy it from them. It’s actually a big deal how many copies of the game retailers buy in advance. It’s pretty complicated to be honest. And in the past, Namco-Bandai (USA) has been very random with its retail based decisions. For example, Tales of Vesperia on 360 had a special edition, but it was announced barely a week before the game launched. Yeah, it doesn’t really make any sense to do that.

They make some head scratching decisions sometimes, but I’ve kinda grown used to this. If I had to guess, I’d imagine they are aiming for a Q1 early Q2 release date. (They could be trying to put a time gap between it and Ni no Kuni though…) I hope they get the ball rolling sooner, but you can’t even reserve the game on amazon yet, which really says it all.

Xenovelgr

Hopefully we’ll get it in early 2013, I’m thinking Feb or maybe early March like Graces f. I’m glad they gave Jude a deeper voice, hopefully he sounds more Yuri and less Asbel/Luke

or January 2013 would be nice, the wait for this game is definitely killing me hopefully the sequel gets released stateside the same year if the first one sells

LordKaiser

Jude is supposed to be more wimpy than them.

Willgaea

I’ve never seen anything on tales of xillia, but I’m glad they made the main guys voice manly. I was also thinking of Regal when they said they lowered his tone a bit.

LordKaiser

But will it go with he’s personality? He’s a wimp cømparable to the Sword Art online protagonist.

Willgaea

That’s a series I’ve seen. And I wouldn’t consider Kirito a wimp. He puts his data on the line every time he enters the tower (the wimps are the people who stay in town). His battle voice isn’t wimpy either. He’s emotional but who wouldn’t be if you were stuck in that situation.

Willgaea

Hah, what happened to the rest of the comments? Guess they deleted them.

They say it is a grueling process. But it is nowhere near as grueling as actually making the game from scratch and dubing it like the Japanese had to do. I don’t get why we don’t get more of these when all they have to do is a small fraction of the work the original game designers has to do.

Only eight weeks? That’s good! I think… Well, I hope the dub is good, or bearable, rather. If dual audio is available, no doubt I’ll choose that in a heartbeat, but I wouldn’t mind a dub if it’s good. For example, Blazblue has one of the best dubs I’ve heard. I still play JP dub on it, though. :P I hope the OP isn’t dubbed or instrumental’d. (is “instrumentaled” a word…? Hrm.) I’m sick of muting the TV and playing the JP OP over the EN OP every time I play each Tales game! I know I don’t need to, but I love J Pop, I only listen to J Pop, I only have J Pop on my iPod, I decide which anime to watch by the OPs…..you get the picture.

vertical09

The op will most likely be instrumental or eng dubed.
Would be cool if they could put an option to have either the ENG or JP version of the song playing though.

Kazziyan

Shouldn’t be too hard. They did it with Vesperia.

I don’t know about Graces f though.

fireemblembeast

They did what in Vesperia? Did they put the option to have either version?

Sovereign Gale

They gave you the English AND Japanese OP in the English version of the game. I think you had to beat the game once to unlock the Japanese version, though, and it only played every once in a while.

fireemblembeast

I wouldn’t mind that. Sounds great.

AdamBoy64

Both English and Japanese versions of the Opening Song played in Vesperia.

That is, if you listened to the English version, and left it, the next time the intro clip played again – it would play the Japanese version.

fireemblembeast

Oh I see thanks

MrRobbyM

I wish they would do an opening more like Symphonia’s NA opening. The music gets me pumped every time.

fireemblembeast

Yeah that was a pretty awesome instrumental, but I still prefer JP OP. :P

Ali Hillis would suit Milla, imo. Can’t wait to hear the voices they came up with! :D

Lele Mett

Trust me when I say she does not need Lightning’s vocie. That vocie is too strong for Milla. I’m thinking more along the lines of the person who played Sheena in TOS or C2 on Code Gesas.Still there probably going to get avgerage anime vocies…

Revorse

I was thinking Ali Hillis as well. And by too strong, do you mean Milla’s struggles aren’t as high-risk or something, so the voices won’t match? Or just that her voice is not fitting of the character’s design or something.

Lele Mett

Both. When I think Ali I think women like characters like Lightning. Millia looks like a child like she is no older than 15 years old. So the voice just seems off. Plus Milla is a much brighter person than Lightning so I’m thinking a brighter voice.

Potionzmaster

Well, I haven’t played this game of course, but I think Ali can do softer voices too (like in the Mass Effect trilogy). But again, I don’t know too much about Milla. We’ll see :)

浪黒雷 (ro-kurorai)

Namco Bandai “figured the North American audience would prefer a lower, stronger voice.” Good for them, but maybe the EU audience would not -_-So basically that means no option to toggle between the original Seiyuu and the “ones preferred by the American audience”. Bloody shame. Not that I care, got my Japanese version on d1. Buying Vesperia before my flight back. It’s just sad that the option to toggle between VAs is not even given.

Last we heard, Baba-san was trying to get it included, but due to licensing issues, it’s not that easy.

浪黒雷 (ro-kurorai)

My guess is it’s cheaper to pay off the English VAs than to pay the royalties the original Japanese Seiyuu demand. As Tales of is still not as huge in EU/NA as it is in Japan I understand Baba-san’s concern. They’re a business after all, not charity. It has to be profitable and it seems the Japanese royalties (i.e. “licensing issues” as it’s put so eloquently by PR) are quite substantial.

The Black Rabbit

yes! i am pleased, i hope this game sells well, because the sequel will come if so.

dart2087

Ok…. now a release date?

RedWolfe

Hope I see some of my favorite VA’s in here.

Really curious to see which actress they chose to portray millia. If they chose Jennifer Hale…insta-buy :P

(Who am I kidding, I’ll buy it regardless. They need the support over here in the West).

Xenovelgr

I swear if Laura Bailey, Jamieson Price and Michelle Ruff are in the game again I’ll still buy it day one but be slightly annoyed! Take that Namco!

RedWolfe

I can’t really vouch for Jamieson Price but I love Laura Bailey and Michelle Ruff, lol.

OMG i cant wait to play that game with my friend i just want to know when will they launch the Game .. please namco i only need the date let me rest .. damn i hope not to long am dieing here

Ghanim

and why not make it like an anime like put a japanese voice and a english subtitle that would be great i .. i would like to play it with japanese voice and an english sub better then the english voice .. only an opinion